Monday, July 25, 2016

I understand that many of you were following the Facebook
postings, blogs, and etc. from General Assembly that your commissioners and I
generated. As you know, lots of good
stuff happened this year, not the least of which was the final adoption of the
Confession of Belhar. It is going to be
such a meaningful tool which will not only encourage and challenge us in our
own walk of faith; it will be a gift to each of us as we continue to struggle
with issues of race and separation in our day.

You’ll be hearing more from our commissioners at the October
Presbytery meeting. You also need to
know that any of them are willing to come meet with you and your congregation
to talk about “what happened” from their point of view. If you need names and contact information for
our commissioners, please contact the office and we’ll let you know how to get
hold of them.

For me, one of the biggest headlines out of this year’s
Assembly is how centrist it was. There was more than once occasion for the body
to take a stand on an issue which would have felt divisive at best and
outrageous at worst to many Presbyterians. But in each case the Assembly took a
more moderate road, and a feeling of consensus emerged.

One totally surprising area of controversy which has arisen
since the Assembly is the “Muslim Prayer.”
It is true that on the opening day of the Assembly, a Muslim cleric was
invited to greet the Assembly and offer prayer. The same courtesy was offered
to other ecumenical delegates, including a Rabbi.

In my opinion, the media (and social media) coverage of this
prayer has been over the top and out of proportion to what really occurred. I
even read one “news” piece which was highly critical of the prayer. But the
photograph they used to represent the prayer during the opening day of the
Assembly was actually a picture taken during a Sunday worship service at Second
Presbyterian in Little Rock. I know this because my family worshiped there when
we lived in Arkansas, and I recognized not only the setting but a number of the
people in the picture. It was a false visual representation of the Assembly,
and an unfair written article as well.

I’m writing you about this today because a few of you have
called or emailed me to find out more about this prayer, contacting me on
behalf of upset sessions and/or parishioners.
So I’m assuming that there are more of you that would be interested in
knowing what happened, and hearing another perspective. With his permission, I
want to share with you a piece written by my friend and colleague Mike Cole,
the Executive Presbyter for our next-door neighbor to the east, New Covenant Presbytery.
I very much appreciated his perspective on this issue, and I hope you will too.
Mike calls this piece, “Too Much Ado about Nothing.” Mike's article follows in bold print below. Give it a look:

Too
much has been made of a prayer offered at the beginning of our General Assembly
by a Muslim Imam. The context of the
prayer was within a prayer vigil for victims of terror and violence. A common question among Christians is “where
are the moderate Muslims when it comes to denouncing violence?” This was an opportunity to allow one such
Muslim to stand and be counted. He did and the GA is receiving criticism
for it.

One
online publication in particular has spotlighted this prayer with comments from
a former PCUSA minister, who is no longer serving the congregation that he led
out of the PCUSA for ECO. His ministry
is the conversion of Muslims and he regularly blogs on the evils of Islam. I submitted both the prayer video and the
“critic’s” comments to an Islamic scholar in Houston whom I trust implicitly
for an explanation.

At
the General Assembly, the Imam began in Arabic with a phrase that is commonly
used whenever quoting from the Quran - “I
seek refuge with Allah from Satan the accursed.” This is not a prayer for protection from
“evil” Presbyterians, as the “critic” alleges.
The remainder of the prayer in Arabic was: “Allah bless us and bless
our families and bless our Lord. Lead us on the straight path – the path of all
the prophets: Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad. Peace be upon
them all Amen.

Then
the Imam prayed the following in English: “In the name of Allah, the
beneficent, the merciful, let us praise the Lord. The creator of the universe,
the most merciful, the most compassionate and the Lord of the universe who has
created us and made us into nations and tribes, from male and females that we
may know each other, not that we might despise each other, or may despise each
other. Incline towards peace and justice and trust in God, for the Lord is one
that hears and knows everything and the servants of God, the most
compassionate, the most merciful, gracious are those who walk in the earth in
humility and when bigots and hateful and Islamaphobes address them, they say peace.
Peace be upon them and peace be upon Allah.”

Later
in the assembly the Stated Clerk offered this apology/explanation:“During the interfaith prayer service on Saturday in response to the
killings in Charleston and Orlando, a prayer was offered that went beyond
what had been scripted. It was an offense of the head, not of the heart;
it came from one seeking to be authentically gracious, as part of the healing
service. Some commissioners found it offensive. When in relationship with
people of other faiths, sometimes we can inadvertently be offensive when
meaning to be sensitive and ecumenical. It was never the intention of the one
offering the prayer to offend any of us. Nevertheless, we offer an apology to
all those who were offended.” In my mind, that ended the matter,
until the "critic" picked it up several days later.

I
agree with what one of our pastors wrote today, “I do not subscribe to the interpretation that the prayer: was anti-Jewish or anti-Christian; was an attempt to convert the assembly; or
denied the authority of scripture or of biblical salvation” This statement lines up with the explanation
of the Islamic Scholar I consulted who wrote the following:

“One point of clarification here is that, in
Muslim tradition, Jews and Christians are the direct two religions before
Islam. The Quran refers to both religions as good and worthy
of following. Also, it is worth mentioning that the Imam was speaking his own
words construed from various verses In Quran. He was trying to show the message
of peace as shared by all those sent from God and what we all should have.

The word Allah in Arabic literally means
“the One who is worshiped" I.e God in English or Dios in
Spanish. The word prophet in
Islamic tradition is (Nabi or Nabee'). It is not what the English term
connotes. Rather, in Arabic, It refers to the person who is sent by God with a
message to guide humanity. Within that understanding all those mentioned were
sent by God to guide us all. The difference is that Muslims revere Jesus as a
special creation of God unlike any human while our Christian counterparts
believe in him as lord and or the son of God. Even with that main difference,
Islam orders us to respect other faiths. We believe that everyone is entitled
to choose their faith and belief system.”

My
observations are that the prayer refers to God as Allah, which is a common word
for God in the Middle East, used even among Jews. We regularly refer to
God by different names - Father, Rock, Redeemer, etc. That doesn't
change God's character when we use a different name for God. If I were
invited to pray at a Muslim assembly and used the name of Jesus, it would not
be with the intent of converting them or offending them but simply an
expression of how I normally pray.

I
would not expect a Muslim to acknowledge Jesus as Lord any more than I would
expect a Jew or Buddhist to do so. From our perspective putting Jesus on
the same level as Muhammad is not sufficient. From the perspective of a
Muslim, putting Jesus on the same level as Muhammad is an
honor. I doubt that the Imam thought of it as
offensive.

The bottom line is that this prayer was intended to affirm
Presbyterians in faith and stand with us for peace and justice and against
violence. It is a shame that some would
choose to twist the intent to be something nefarious and devious.

Mike has given permission for Presbyterians to share this
article as we see fit. So feel free to make copies of it for your Sessions,
your church newsletter, wherever you think it would be most appropriate and
most helpful. And if you’d like to talk more about the topic, give me a call or
drop me an email. I’m happy to talk it over with you.